Are you really safe?

A Lot of people I have talked to and listen to on media often talk of the need for strong government to protect the people and keep them safe. I ask this simple question protect them from what? Other people, criminals, terrorists or maybe even thoughts or words that make us feel bad? Many of us feel unsafe and a lot of others call us paranoid but I suggest that at no time in our lives are we ever truly safe. Now it is easy to dismiss the fact that we are never really safe but I ask this question; where exactly are you totally safe from harm? Perhaps at your work where you know most everyone and there is a strict no weapons policy. How could you be harmed there? Well ask anyone who has been through the horror of a workplace shooting or even a terrorist attack. Ask the people who survived the 911 attack who were actually in the towers when the planes struck. These are quite rare examples but they have happened and I would bet it will happen again in some form or another. Maybe safety lies in our schools and other government buildings. There are plenty of guards or police protecting the buildings so they must be safe. Timothy McVeigh would have something to say about that as well as all of his victims. The several shootings in schools that have been publicized as of late should give anyone pause on how safe they really are. Perhaps you are safe at your home with your gun placed safely in your safe or in a drawer or maybe even on your hip, but how safe does that make you when you are lying in bed asleep or on the floor playing with your kids, dog or cat? My point is not to scare you but to make you think in the real terms that being comfortable is not necessarily safe and that being completely safe is not really possible so where is the line drawn for intervention into your comfort and a level of safety. May I suggest the very proponents that want to make you feel safe are the ones increasing your levels of danger. One should take their safety seriously and not allow others to control it lest they be controlled themselves. When people use force to make you safer it may increase your safety from others but does it decrease your safety from them? Let me give you an example let’s say that your neighbor is suspected of using illegal drugs. This person has a job, pays his or her bills and is a good neighbor but the government in trying to protect you from his or her choice and one day decides to raid her home in full armor and a large battering ram. They enter forcibly and take out their dog and shoot the occupant to find a ¼ ounce of (enter illegal drug here). Now you should feel safe the evil drug user has been captured in true military style. A million dollars has been spent and your neighbor is in jail yeeha. Beware how happy you feel about this because if your child or perhaps wife or husband has a prescribed drug and someone thinks you are using it in an illegal way and tells the government, this could be you. The harmless joint you kept in case you wanted to be a kid again or the rival you have leaving a bag of (enter illegal drug here) could cause you the same pain. When a group of well meaning militant officers protecting your safety enters your home to ensure that you are not harming anyone else with your illicit drug behavior and afterwards going out for a well deserved beer, wine or maybe even whisky. Perhaps a ban on all things harmful to you will keep you safe. Guns kill people every day, not wearing your seat belt could kill you if you are in an accident, soda may make you fat. Your choices are your own and if you want to risk your life by owning a gun or not wearing your seat belt is it the right of the government to tell you no? If you wish to be obese or maybe just give yourself a treat once in awhile should Uncle Sam be able to financially spank you for it? Well in most states there is a tax for not wearing a seat belt issued out one stop at time. Many places make it so hard to own a gun that it is not worth it to have one unless you make money with it. With soda, salt and fat taxes the government wants you to be healthy or poor or at least if you are poor the small rewards of sugary drinks or fatty foods are reserved for those who can afford it. If you think big brother was just watching you may need to read that book again. Terrorism. The word should fill everyone with a little twinge of fear. So how do we stop it. The short answer is we can’t. It is like crime. We cannot remove it from the face of the earth and we cannot kill all of them because if we do others will flock to fill the shoes of the deceased. So what do we do about it. Well the government will make a color scheme to tell you how scared you should be today. How we should look for items like left bags or odd containers or weird vibrating (fill in weird thing here) but we will not allow statistics to help us or take into account behavior and ethnicity. We will stand by and ensure all junk is fondled and that every 90 year old wheelchair bound grandparent is checked and we will not report odd behavior because he or she is (enter protected group here). It is better to investigate the innocent peacefully than to allow the guilty to cause harm. Now if you truly want to be as safe as possible then let me suggest you live your life in a bunker underground with enough emp protection to withstand a nuclear bomb and have a hepa system to ensure your air is pure and ensure little disease can get to you. If you want to live an exciting life then I suggest you temp death at every corner, climb Everest, go base jumping, do that cool airplane race red bull puts on. If you want to live a full and happy life then be concerned with your own safety. Assess risk and reward for yourself. Keep the government out of your life as much as possible and you will find that you are safer than you thought and happier for it.